July 2, 2007: Writing, Submitting, Baby Birds!
Writing -- I've been methodically going through my backlog of unsold stories, unsold because I've hardly sent them anywhere, brushing them up, and submitting them to top markets. It may be a complete waste of time and postage, but maybe it isn't, and anyway, I am a writer and it's what writers do. The point is to participate in the process, not to achieve a certain outcome. Also, after being stuck for a while, I'm working again on the horror story set in Colombia and having a good time with it. Edited another book about school leadership, this one for principals ("headteachers" in the U.K. -- I hadn't known that) about being sensitive to their teachers' feelings will improve students' learning.
Check out the Diversicon 15 Media Guide. I had a lot of fun pulling this together! Also wrote up Wikipedia articles on Diversicon and SF Minnesota. Learning the basics of Wiki was fun -- it's been a while since I've learned a new way of telling computers what to do.
Am working on the Anthologies section of the Quick Reference Market List today and should get it posted.
Family -- Lost the Rainbowfish 24 hours after my last entry. Lost another male Rainbowfish about a week later. Not sure what happened to him. We'd had a stretch of very hot weather, the tank temp had risen to 85F. Then it cooled off drastically overnight, and the heater didn't entirely keep up with the cool wind coming through the open window next to the tank; it got down to 77F or so. That's when I noticed that the fish wasn't swimming as actively as the others and wasn't eating. He also seemed slightly swollen through the abdomen but wasn't dropsy-like. Other than the behavioral changes, there was no outward sign of infection, fungus, or parasites, so I didn't move him to the hospital tank as I wasn't sure what I would treat him for. After a few days, I found him dead with Mr. Snail sitting on top of him. He's now feeding the flowers. On a brighter note, the Head-and-Taillight Tetra with severe fin rot has mostly grown back its fins and got moved back to the main tank last week. Among bigger fish, he's not nearly as mean to his fellow Tetras!
Culture -- Does aerobics music count as culture? Probably not. Have just starting Andrea Hairston's Mindscape. It's all very interesting, though I'm having trouble getting my bearings with her world and characters. It will probably make more sense once I get further into it.
Home & Garden -- The veggie patch is going great! I've got an amazing amount of pak choy. The lettuce and spinach are starting to come into their own. The tomatoes are amazing (and I put in way too many tomato plants -- already asked the neighbors if I could put a bag of tomatoes on their porch later this summer) and the peppers and cantaloupe are blooming and starting fruits.
In the perennial beds, it's weeding, watering, weeding, watering. I just want 0.5" rain a week. Is that really so much to ask? Those poor folks down in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas would probably be happy to give me some of what they've got. Lone Star racetrack, between Dallas and Ft. Worth, had to cancel races the other day when it got nearly an inch of rain in 15 minutes. Yikes! Got to say, though, that the lone delphinium I managed to start from seed a couple of years ago is looking amazing -- such a brilliant blue, and so many blooms!
And it's baby bird season once again. Gaping mouths, fluttering wings, and feed me! feed me! I'm pretty sure I saw a Black-Throated Gray Warbler at the feeders the other day, which I don't think I've seen before. It was a very striking small bird with lots of contrasting black and white and gray. We also have a small red squirrel (not a chipmunk) this year that we've never seen around here before. Haven't seen the larger gray squirrels visiting the feeder for a while, though. Maybe the red squirrel is fierce and chases them off?
To escape the heat wave last week, dropped into a Wild Birds Unlimited for the first time ever. Oh my! What a fabulous place. Their suet has no artificial junk in it, so I got some of that -- the kind with the dead bugs in it. Doug thinks that by providing the birds with pre-dead bugs they don't have to catch, I might be spoiling them. You think? I *love* spoiling them! I also got a bag of seed, which they're going through at an insane rate. Doug picked up Birds of Prey of Minnesota, one of a series of hand-sized field guides organized by the birds' colors and sizes -- much handier than those organized by family-genus-species. I already have the ones for Minnesota and Wisconsin, but it's nice to have one devoted to raptors because it shows what their silhouette looks like from below and from the front/back in front.
Fun -- What could be more fun than baby birds???
Check out the Diversicon 15 Media Guide. I had a lot of fun pulling this together! Also wrote up Wikipedia articles on Diversicon and SF Minnesota. Learning the basics of Wiki was fun -- it's been a while since I've learned a new way of telling computers what to do.
Am working on the Anthologies section of the Quick Reference Market List today and should get it posted.
Family -- Lost the Rainbowfish 24 hours after my last entry. Lost another male Rainbowfish about a week later. Not sure what happened to him. We'd had a stretch of very hot weather, the tank temp had risen to 85F. Then it cooled off drastically overnight, and the heater didn't entirely keep up with the cool wind coming through the open window next to the tank; it got down to 77F or so. That's when I noticed that the fish wasn't swimming as actively as the others and wasn't eating. He also seemed slightly swollen through the abdomen but wasn't dropsy-like. Other than the behavioral changes, there was no outward sign of infection, fungus, or parasites, so I didn't move him to the hospital tank as I wasn't sure what I would treat him for. After a few days, I found him dead with Mr. Snail sitting on top of him. He's now feeding the flowers. On a brighter note, the Head-and-Taillight Tetra with severe fin rot has mostly grown back its fins and got moved back to the main tank last week. Among bigger fish, he's not nearly as mean to his fellow Tetras!
Culture -- Does aerobics music count as culture? Probably not. Have just starting Andrea Hairston's Mindscape. It's all very interesting, though I'm having trouble getting my bearings with her world and characters. It will probably make more sense once I get further into it.
Home & Garden -- The veggie patch is going great! I've got an amazing amount of pak choy. The lettuce and spinach are starting to come into their own. The tomatoes are amazing (and I put in way too many tomato plants -- already asked the neighbors if I could put a bag of tomatoes on their porch later this summer) and the peppers and cantaloupe are blooming and starting fruits.
In the perennial beds, it's weeding, watering, weeding, watering. I just want 0.5" rain a week. Is that really so much to ask? Those poor folks down in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas would probably be happy to give me some of what they've got. Lone Star racetrack, between Dallas and Ft. Worth, had to cancel races the other day when it got nearly an inch of rain in 15 minutes. Yikes! Got to say, though, that the lone delphinium I managed to start from seed a couple of years ago is looking amazing -- such a brilliant blue, and so many blooms!
And it's baby bird season once again. Gaping mouths, fluttering wings, and feed me! feed me! I'm pretty sure I saw a Black-Throated Gray Warbler at the feeders the other day, which I don't think I've seen before. It was a very striking small bird with lots of contrasting black and white and gray. We also have a small red squirrel (not a chipmunk) this year that we've never seen around here before. Haven't seen the larger gray squirrels visiting the feeder for a while, though. Maybe the red squirrel is fierce and chases them off?
To escape the heat wave last week, dropped into a Wild Birds Unlimited for the first time ever. Oh my! What a fabulous place. Their suet has no artificial junk in it, so I got some of that -- the kind with the dead bugs in it. Doug thinks that by providing the birds with pre-dead bugs they don't have to catch, I might be spoiling them. You think? I *love* spoiling them! I also got a bag of seed, which they're going through at an insane rate. Doug picked up Birds of Prey of Minnesota, one of a series of hand-sized field guides organized by the birds' colors and sizes -- much handier than those organized by family-genus-species. I already have the ones for Minnesota and Wisconsin, but it's nice to have one devoted to raptors because it shows what their silhouette looks like from below and from the front/back in front.
Fun -- What could be more fun than baby birds???
posted by Paula F. at
6:38 PM
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